Australia sends military, armed police to MH17 crash site

SYDNEY, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Australian military personnel will support armed Australian police in securing the MH17 crash site in Ukraine, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced on Friday.

Abbott told a press conference that 90 Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers were in Europe now and another 100 are leaving on Friday and that some of them could be armed.

He said an agreement with the Ukraine government was soon to be finalized which will allow Australian police to assist in the investigation around the MH17 crash site and secure the area.

The "small number" of Australian military will back up the police and also work with military from partner countries including the Netherlands and possibly other countries whose citizens were killed in the crash.

Abbott said the Australian deployment was focused on bringing " our people home" and all Australia wanted to do "is claim our dead and to bring them back."

He said Australia did not want to get involved in European politics and most of the AFP officers would not be armed.

Abbott said he again spoke to U.S. President Barack Obama, who supported the plans, but insisted it was not a United States mission, but a mission led by the countries whose citizens had been killed.

The prime minister said he had spoken twice to Russian President Vladimir Putin this week and the Russian leader had been "full of sympathy, as you would expect from another human being" about what happened to the Australian families involved in the crash.